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What is the best way to clean a canister?

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This weekend I cleaned my canister for the 2nd time. While it was a little over due, I don't remember it being this difficult the first time I did it. All I did was wipe off a little gunk from the UV light that sits in the filter and changed one of the foam pads in a basket. But the water inside the filter was disgusting. Lots of debris and such. I had the filter unplugged of course when I was doing this, but when I turned the filter back on and I primed it a little. Tons of this gunk came shooting out of the out take spray bar and back into my tank. Was this bad? Is it harmful to the fish? The tank is clear now. Anyway, what should I have done differently?

Mine has done that the few times I've cleaned my canisters. I always clean the canisters and let them run half an hour before doing a water change, that way you can suck up most of the gunk when the water change is done

Hose cleaners are good to have, I would clean them out every other time. I usually do maintenance on my canisters once every other month (alternating between the two I have).

I will usually dump the dirty water and refill the canister with clean tank water (I clean it while doing a water change; before the water change). This gets rid of the debris buildup. I also replace the fine filter floss and rinse debris from the more coarse foams. I try to avoid contact with any bio media that is in the cansiter when I can.

Remember, any rinsing should be done with TANK WATER ONLY. But I feel dumping the gunky water/debris is usally a good idea. And in the end it will improve the water flow from your filter.